Worried Workers

At present here, in Lima, both women
and men, young and middle-aged, are uncertain about their jobs.

Very few people in search of a job in
our capital have found a position over the last two years, among them, many
recent graduates, often with good grades.

In previous years, when our country
was highly regarded internationally, several Chilean companies invested in
various areas here. But they do not want to risk their capital any more and
over the last few years have not been good for us economically, with some of
them doubting whether they will continue in 2019. If they do not, unemployment
will rise.

A few years ago, there was a time
when many international companies fired a large percentage of their staff
worldwide due to the crises in Europe and the United States. Some of the
employees that have remained are Peruvians, while others departed. Yes, the
truth is that Peru exports its best talent, the reason being that we do not pay
Peruvians what they can earn abroad.

Labor situation for women and men

Women are the ones who have more
problems when looking for a job. And many of them have trouble finding a secure
position so they must accept part-time or informal jobs in areas for
non-professionals.

In recent decades, many women who are
now looking for a job were hired for a position when they were young and did
not have babies. However, afterwards, many of them became pregnant. First, they
had one, after a relatively short time they had another, and some of them, in
an unguarded moment, had a third. Consequently, they had to decide which
activity they would prefer, and, if they chose to bet on the “mother” work, the
sad consequence was that they lost their job.

These are some of the women that are
now looking for a position. If they return to work, they must have a live-in housemaid
to take care of their children, so they need higher salaries. As a result, such
employees earn a high salary today, but these jobs are very hard to find in Lima.
In some cases, women work only to pay these extra expenses related to children
because by working they feel more appreciated.

In the United States, by contrast, the
women working as secretaries may leave their jobs and slip back into them at
the drop of a hat by calling their bosses when their children reach the age of nursery
school, of course if their record is good as an employee.

As you can see, it is very difficult
for women to go back to work: bosses think they will be absent too often, and since
they do not want this, they do not welcome mothers with small children. When
the children grow up, the problem is that the women are not as young as the
girls the bosses are looking for to occupy the available positions, especially
for some jobs.

In
this and other cases, age is a very important factor for employers. Sometimes
the most important thing besides physical appearance. There is a maximum age,
even for professionals, with experience and qualifications being secondary. You
may think that starting a business, especially for the ones that have studied
administration-related careers would be a solution, but the likelihood of
success in this area is low for women at this moment here in Lima. Why? You
need capital. And most of them do not have it (that is one of the reasons, if
not the most important one for why they are looking for a job). Even if they
manage to find capital, their business would be small, and the big ones would ¨eat¨
it.

Still, many
women try this route repeatedly, until none of the people to whom they turn (generally
their parents) has money to risk.

The norm also
requires that in the work training programs 50% of the participants must be
women. It says additionally that the entity offering the job must assure that
sexual harassment is prevented.1 We are having many problems with
this at the present time in our city.

We want this
labor law to be obeyed, but legal experts think that in some cases it will be
impossible for the companies to comply.

We need the
Peruvian authorities to adopt another law forbidding employers from asking
job-seekers about their age, especially women.

On the other
hand, men’s occupational situation is better here, since a higher percentage of
men have a job. Nonetheless, it is also uncertain as many of them are not sure about
the security of their positions, for the reasons discussed below.

Reasons for job insecurity

The disasters
in several Peruvian provinces as well as the corruption scandal in which the
troublemaker has been Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company, have
contributed to the high rate of unemployment existing in our country.

According to
the admissions of the Brazilian ex-CEO, Marcelo Odebrecht, who has come to an
agreement on cooperating with the Peruvian authorities, “the company had a
policy of financing presidential candidates with a chance of winning, the purpose
being that if one of them acceded to power, the construction company would have
an open invitation to undertake projects in the country.”2

All that this
ex-CEO has declared in court is being investigated, and, meanwhile, the public
projects that they were handling in our country have stopped. Unfortunately, these
were the most important public projects.

But Odebrecht
did not carry out its projects alone; it had joint ventures with Peruvian
construction companies, forming groups for the execution of such public
projects.

The ex-CEO
has declared that the person who was in direct contact with their Peruvian authorities
was Jorge Barata, the Odebrecht Branch Manager for Peru. Now, Barata may also come
to an agreement on cooperating with the Peruvian investigators. On December 2nd,
he confessed to the way in which they operated to win the tender contract for the
South Interoceanic Highway public works project. He said that $20 million was
given to Alejandro Toledo, the Peruvian ex-President who was governing Peru at that
time, as a bribe to obtain the winning bid. He added that, after a year, when
their associated companies received their earnings, each made a “contribution.”

The problem for
us is that these companies provide jobs for thousands of Peruvians, and since
December 4, their five business owners are in pre-trial detention.

Fortunately, the
reconstruction following the disasters in several Peruvian provinces has made this
year a little better for the companies engaged in construction related fields,
for example bathroom fittings and sanitary products. However, the
reconstruction is going slowly because a few years ago there was a change in the
governance structure and it was rushed, the consequence being that the
governors chosen for each region have not been very well selected and many of
them have fallen prey to corruption.

Since nothing
has been done in almost a year, the person leading the reconstruction was
recently replaced, although he was a respectable man. He said that he has been preparing
the list of affected inhabitants and planning the reconstruction of the homes and
community services damaged by the disasters, but, a whole year or more had
passed and actual work had not begun.

In short, there
is work in Lima and Peru in general, but it is limited, problematic for women
and many of the positions are for unskilled labor or technicians.